Drilling apparatus



B. REED AND W. HEPLER.

DRILLING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 21.1920.

Patented May 17, 1921.

WARREN B. anni) AND WALTER HEPLER, or ivroieeaiv CITY, LOUISIANA.

DRILLING Al?IIE'ARAT'US.A

Levante.

Application led June 21, 1920. Serial No. 390,494.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WARREN B. REED and WALTER I-IEPLER, both citizens of thel United States, residin at Morgan City, in the parish of St. ary and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drilling Apparatus and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description ofthe in vention, such as willenable-others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to well drilling apparatus and has for its object to provide apparatus of this character which will be simple in construction, comparatively inexpensive to manufacture, assemble and maintain, and more efiicient iii operation than those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combinations of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the claims. h

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views Figure 1 is a diagrammatic vertical sectional view of an apparatus made in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the lower portion of the parts shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2, looking down.

In the drilling of oil and other wells it is often desirable to obtain samples or vreturns of the various strata, through which the drill passes and in many instances it is also desirable to know the kind of formation lying just ahead of the hole which is being bored to size, in which cases a core such as would be produced with a diamond drill in formations that would permit of its use,

would be of extreme value to the drillei'.

In the rotary system ofdrilling wells the samples of the cuttings of the fislrtail or other type of bit are brought to the surface by means of water which is pumped down through the hollow drill stem, through the bit at the bottom of the hole, and then back up outside the drill stem. These cuttings are brought up solely by the flowing water, in a very diluted form and often stick to the sides of the well, resulting in a very incomplete data regarding the strata or formations through which the well is being drilled. This is a serious drilling by the rotary system,- since it frequently results in the entire overlooking of many valuable strata through which .the drill has passed, and it is one of the objects of this invention to provide means whereby samples of the unwashed cuttings may be readily obtained for examination.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates a lower section ofthe drill stem, which stem is preferably in the form of a hollow pipe reaching'to the top of the well and constituting a conduit through which the wash disadvantage in' Specification of Letters Patent.- Patentedl May 17, QQL

water is pumped downto bring up the cuteating with the said bore 4, and having a plurality of branches 9 leading to the bore 6. rIhe plug 7 is also provided with a second bore 10 and is connected at 'its lowerend as by the coupling 11 to the pipe 12, which constitutes a chamber to receive the dry cut' tings, as will more fully appear below.

The lower end of the pipe 12 is threaded into the shank of the rotary shoe or cutter member 13, which is provided with the bore A141 into which is threaded or otherwise secured the fish-tail or other bit 15, see Figs. 1 and 2. The shank 16 of the said bit 15 is bored as at 17, providing a pair of openings 18 communicating with either side of the blade of the bit 15, through which the cut'- tings from the said bitl may pass, as will be readily apparent.

Within the bore or chamber 14 of the rotary shoe 13 is a suitable check valve, here shown as a pair of hinged semi-circular leaves 20, mounted upon the hinge pin or rod 2l carried by the said shoe 13, and adapted when in their closed position, shown in Fig. l, to fit the circumference of the bore 14 and to seat upon the surface 22 of the' bit shank 16. It will thus be apparent that the said leaves 20 may swing upwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, to permit the passage of any cuttings which may be forced up from the passage 17, but that they will swing viding an annular passage 27 for the downwardly flowing water, and secured to the bottom of the said casing 26 is the rotary cutter or shoe 28, employed to ream the hole to size in the usual manner. The said casv ing 26 is of course smaller in diameter than the reamed hole produced by the cutter 28, whereby an annular space 29 is provided for the return of the wash water with the cuttings from the said cutter.

The bore 10 of the plug 7 is connected to the said annular space 29 by means of a threaded bushing 31, extending through the portion 5 of the nipple 3 and the bore 6 thereof and into the plug 7, and the bore 32 of the said bushing 31 is adapted to be closed by a threaded plug 33, as will be apparent from Fig. 1.

rIhe operation of the device will be clear from the foregoing, but may be briefly summarized as follows:

In beginning the well, the drilling operations are carried on in the usual manner in- `character of the strata or formations ahead of the drilled hole, the drill stem 1 is withdrawn from the hole, the usual bits or other drilling apparatus removed therefrom, and the device here illustrated is attached to the lower end of the said stem, which is then reintroduced into the hole. Upon the rotation of the apparatus, the bit 15 and the shoe 13 will cut into the earth at the bottom of the drilled hole, and the cuttings therefrom will be forced up along the flat sides of the bit 15 and into the openings v18 and bore 17. As the cutters descend additional cuttings will find their way into the bore 17, forcing open the leaves 2() of the check valve, and entering into the pipe 12, as will be readily apparent. When the pipe 12 is filled, the tool may be withdrawn from the hole, and the cuttings contained therein examined. This cutting operation being carried on in the dry, the cuttings contained within the pipe 12 will form layers or strata corresponding exactly to the strata through which the bits have passed, and the driller is thus enabled to ascertain with great certainty Athe character of the formations through which the reamed hole will pass.

The bits 15 and 13 produce a bore 40 of a predetermined diameter and this said bore ie reamed to any desirel size by the rotary more. The cuttings from the shoe 28 may be washed up in the usual manner by water pumped down through the hollow drill stem l 1, the passages 4, 8, 9, and 27 to the said shoe,

therein, which amount will vary according to the depth at which the tool is working. In any such case, however, the amount of liquid is negligible and the cuttings are brought to the surface in substantially a dry state.

On the other hand, if desired the plug 33 may beremoved, in which case the pipe chamber 12 will be filled with water, which will be displaced and forced upward by the incoming cuttings. In this case, the samples brought up will of course vbe more moistened than when the plug 33 is used, but nevertheless good results may be obtained when operating in this manner.`

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction as well as the arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore we do not wish to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be'required by the claims.

lVhat we claim is 1. In an apparatus ofthe class described the combination of a cutter. member; a second cutter member adapted to operate in advance of said first cutter member; means whereby fluid may be supplied to said first cutter member to remove the cuttings therefrom; and means adapted t-o receive the cuttings produced by said second member, and to maintain them out of coutact with said fluid; substantially as described. Y

2. In an apparatus of the class described the combination of a cutter member; a second cutter member adapted to operate in advance of said first cutter member; means whereby fluid may be supplied to said first cutter member to remove the cuttings therefrom; means adapted to receive the cuttings produced bysaid second member, and to maintain them out of contact with said fluid; and meansY adapted to control the entrance to said last named means; substantially as described. l

3 In an apparatus of the class described the combination/of a cuttermember; means whereby fluid may be supplied to said cutter member to remove the cuttings therefrom; a plurality of additional cutter members adapted to operate in advance of said ed to receive the cuttings therefrom and protect them from said fluid; and a valve associated With said last named cutters adapted Ato control the entrance to said y chamber; substantially as described.

4. In an a paratus of the class described the combination of a cutter member; means associated with said cutter member adapted to receive cuttings therefrom; means adapted to control admission of said cuttings to said receiving means; and means whereby fluid may be admitted or excluded from said receiving means at will; substantially as described.

5. In anapparatus of theclass described' the combination of a cutter member; a

second cutter member adapted .to `operate..ins-"r1A advance of said first member; means whereby fluid may be supplied to said first cutter member to remove the cuttings therefrom;

means adapted to receive cuttings from said ,second cutter member; means adapted to control the admission of said last named cuttings to said receiving means; and means whereby Huid may be admittedor excluded from said receiving means at will; substantially as described. y

6. In an apparatus of the class described the combination of a rotatable cutter member; means whereby-.fluid may be supplied to said cutter member to' remove the cut-g tings therefrom; a second cutter member adapted to operate in advance of said first cutter member;` means adapted to prevent said fiuid from reaching said second cutter member, whereby its cuttings are maintained in a substantially dryv state; and

meansl adapted to receive said last named cuttings and to maintain themjout of contact with said fluid. l v

7. In an apparatus of the class described the` combination of a rotatable cutter member; means adapted to rotate said member, and providing passages whereby fluid may be conducted to and' from the latter; a plurality of additional cutter members adapted to operate in advance of said first cuttermember; a chamber associated with said last nalned cutter members, adapted to receive cuttings therefrom; and means communicating with said chamber and one of said Huid passages,'whereby fluid may be admitted to or rexcluded from said chamber at will'.

8. In an apparatus of the class described the combination of a rotatable cutter member; means for rotating said member and adapted .to provide passages whereby fluid may be conducted to and from the latter; a second cutter member rigid with said rotating means and adapted to operate in advance of said first cutter; means adapted to control the entrance to said receiving means;

and a connection between said receiving means and one of said fluid passages whereby uid may be admitted to or excluded from said receiving means at Will.

In testimony whereof We affix our'signatures.

' WARREN B. REED. WALTER HEPLER. 

